Wrestling faces Harvard in key Ivy League battle

The Princeton wrestling team is bearing down for a tough weekend of competition in which they will have dual meets against three of their Ivy League rivals. The greatest test for the Tigers may come in the first match against Harvard Friday night at 7 p.m. in Dillon Gym. The Crimson are coming in hot and will be looking to build off their recent impressive upset of nationally-ranked No. 18 Hofstra. If the Tigers are going to stop them, it is going to take an all around team effort.

Head coach Michael New is confident that such an effort is well within the Tigers' grasp. To achieve this the team must "fuel off of the excitement the years first in session home dual and get productivity out of each weight class," New said.

The Tigers have come to count on getting consistent victories from senior standouts Joe Clark and All-American Greg Parker but this match is clearly going to require others on the team to step up. Helping this cause is the probable return of junior heavyweight Joe Looke, who has been sidelined by a back injury. Looke was an integral part of the Tigers' success last season and coming into this year was considered among the top heavyweights in the Ivies.

"My back injury has been very frustrating and I am ready to help out my team and hopefully I can make a difference," Looke said.

His return will help offset the untimely injury of the Tiger's 197-pounder Matt Fisher, who will be out of action all weekend.

"I'm optimistic that Joe will be back in the lineup this weekend," New said in an interview.

If Looke is in the lineup, the Tigers should chalk up some points in the heavyweight division. Another important matchup will be between senior John Knorring and Harvard's All-American Jesse Jantzen. Jantzen is currently ranked third nationally and should give Knorring all he can handle.

The match should be extremely close and will probably come down to execution on the part of some of Princeton's lesser-known wrestlers.

In wrestling, team points are awarded to the victor of each individual match in accordance to the margin of victory. A minor decision is worth only three points while a pin is worth a full six for the team. In order for Princeton to win, it must stretch some of its decisions into pins and conversely refuse to give pins up to the Harvard squad. This makes every minute of a match extremely important, since points can be given up or lost even after the individual outcome has been decided. Look for the Tigers to fight hard, grab victories when they can, and keep all the rest of the matches close. With the successful execution of this formula a Tiger victory is more than possible Friday.

The Harvard match is by no means Princeton's last big test as the team will face both Columbia and Brown the following Saturday. The meet against Brown will be at home in the morning, and then the Tigers will travel to New York to face the Lions later in the day. The dual is part of a special 100th anniversary celebration of wrestling at Columbia University, where the American collegiate history of the sport began in 1903.

Princeton will be looking to rain on the Columbia celebration and avenge last year's hotly contested 22-19 loss to the Lions. Columbia may have 100 years of tradition, but none of that will matter when it hits the mat Saturday.